jkunz@unixag-kl.fh-kl.de wrote:
> 
> Hi.
> 
> I decided to write a driver for the DEC QBus RXV21 8" floppy controller.
> Unfortunately I have only two controllers, no 8" drive nor medium. I
> thought that this would'nt be a problem, as it is possible to connect a
> 5.25" drive to a 8" floppy controller. But the medium needs to be
> reformated. Now that I have the controller doc, I had to read that the
> RXV21 can not format a floppy. It needs preformated media.
> 
> Would it be possible to use some other machine* with 5.25" floppy drive
> to format the 5.25 media an way that the RXV21 can read it?
> 
> * Other machines are QBus MicroVAXen, VAXstation 2000 and PDP11 with
> RQDX or PeeCees.
> --
> 
> tsch,
>          Jochen
> 
> Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/

Unfortunately, I think you may be out of luck, in that the RXV21
doesn't use a standard interface to the floppy drive. In fact,
as far as I can tell, most of the intelligence of the RXV21/RX02
combo is in the RX02 drive box itself, with the RXV21 acting as 
not much more than a bus converter. 

Some of the third party RX02 emulators used more standard setups,
though, and worked with standard drives, so you might have more luck
there. 

James